Bismack Biyombo is on his way, he’s making it.  Asked by Stephanie Ready what was going through his mind in the frantic final 28 seconds of zaniness that led to a Bobcats win over the Toronto Raptors, Mack answered, “We have done a pretty good job as a team, and it was just big time.”  How has his play and the team’s play been different lately?  “The effort and the energy…it was just big time.”  Has it been tough with Gerald Henderson and Tyrus Thomas’s injuries?  “Just seeing a big time player go down…”  You get the idea.

The Bobcats are now 6-4.  Considering that the Cats were 7-59 last year, I thought we were a long way off from ever starting out a season 6-4 again.  In fact, the next time I thought I would write that the Bobcats were 6-4, I’d be preceding it with, “Captain’s log, star date…”  But Great Caesar’s Ghost, we’re here, and Bismack was a huge part of the latest triumph.  The Congolese Nightmare had 11 points, 8 boards, and 2 blocks, none bigger than the Heisman he delivered on DeMar DeRozan’s layup attempt with 14 seconds left.  This was part of a desperate sequence that featured two blocks, a huge pileup, and 5 missed shots on the hoop by the Raptors to preserve a 1-point Bobcats win—the whole thing was reminiscent of one of those cartoon chases where some object keeps getting swiped back and forth.

First I’ll admit, I was wrong. I knew we would be better than last season, of course, but in no way did I think we would come out of the gate like Seabiscuit aiming for the triple crown. I’m surprised, but in a good way and that’s always a good thing.

I agree that anyone in their right mind that watches sports would ask, how can the worst team in their sport one season, be seen as a playoff contender the very next? If that person is you, I am here to answer that very question.

First remember, last season is over and today is a new day. With a new Coach, that seems to have his players full attention and cooperation, we are surely heading in a new direction. Yes, we just had a season we all want to forget, but that’s part of the business. We drafted well, we also traded and signed good free agents during the off season, and now we have some new quality pieces to add to our rebuilding puzzle. (We are still trading players after the season has started and I can’t remember the last time that has happened.) Is the puzzle complete yet? No it’s not, but I don’t think we have as many key pieces missing as some of you might. If I had to give a #, I’d say we are only about 2 pieces away from being a team that could possibly make the playoffs and get out of the first round. Here’s some key reasons why…

I find the start to this season to be not just surprising but unfathomable.  Last month if you had told me that the Bobcats would start the season 4-3 with a three-game winning streak, I would have assumed it was a sick joke.  Incidentally, this also would have been my response if you’d told me they were remaking Red Dawn.  But both events are now happening, and given their improbability, I’m worried that it’s more than a coincidence.  What if our world and that of Red Dawn are now fusing?  I half expect to look out my office window and see parachuting Russian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan soldiers in vaguely racist dark skin paint hit the ground and gun down my boss while he’s giving me a lesson on Genghis Khan.  Fortunately, if this happens, I’ll know just what to do: load up my car full of Coke, get used to the taste of deer blood, and put the fate of the free world in the hands of Charlie Sheen.

On the other hand, I certainly don’t expect this to last, because circumstances have been hugely favorable to the Bobcats lately.  Starting with injuries: the Mavericks were without Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion, the Wizards were without John Wall and Nene, and the Timberwolves…well, there have been healthier teams emerging from plane crashes.  Beyond the fortunate injury rashes, other strange stuff has been happening.  For the season, Charlotte is ranked 24^th in opponent 3-Pt %, but for the last 3 games they’ve been 4^th.  And I am here to tell you it is NOT because they’ve done a better job closing out the other teams’ shooters.  Troy Murphy and his mid-80s feathered haircut were so wide open that he could have built a time machine and transported himself back to the set of Bryan Adams’s video for “Run to You.”  Most Washington players, meanwhile, would rather pass a kidney stone than the ball, resulting in a 5-for-31 three-point chuck-fest.  As for Minnesota, I think all lines of any kind in that game were simply contaminated.  Both teams shot a combined 9-35 on 3’s and 29-51 on free throws.

“I think everybody that has been watching all of our games,” said coach Mike Dunlap, obviously addressing me personally and a handful of others, “say that MKG gets a little bit better and then all of a sudden he had what you would call a breakout game.”  I definitely would call it a breakout game, coach, and thanks for the shout-out.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist spearheaded the Bobcats’ first ever win over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night in 17 tries, in a game that featured so much crazy crap at the end that I can’t even describe it all; it’s like trying to describe the ending of The Departed.  For example, Brendan Haywood missed separate free throw attempts—one at the end of regulation and one in OT—and both times it ended up being a good thing.

That’s because on both occasions the Bobcats got the rebound.  I was thinking that it was MKG who grabbed both of them, but I forgot that it was Kemba Walker who did it the first time (the Bobcats were trailing by 2 with 22 seconds left).  It’s seriously like trying to remember who was who between Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Leonardo DiCaprio.  Anyway, Walker got it to Ramon Sessions, who missed, and then MKG grabbed that one, and made a great feed back to Sessions for the tie, which sent it into overtime.  Then in overtime, it was indeed MKG who boarded Haywood Misses Critical Goddamned Free Throw, Part II and found Byron Mullens, who flushed the ball like a toilet and gave the Bobcats the lead for good.

Shawty had them Apple Bottom jeans, boots with the furrrr!!  What an opening night to the season!  The last time the Bobcats won an opening night game so thrillingly was last year, so this is clearly a sign of great things to come.  What can you say about this effort?  If you’re David West, you can say that the Bobcats “junked up” the game with their zone defense.  If you’re coach Mike Dunlap, you can say that you just slaughtered an elephant.  But if you’re just a simple fan, like me, you can say farewell to a losing streak that’s longer than Morgan Freeman’s IMDB profile.

Of course the big hero was Kemba Walker, who hit 10-of-21 from the field and 9-out-of-10 free throws.  He style of play wasn’t much different than what he did last year, and in fact he almost submarined the whole thing by tossing up a horrid, Nate Robinsonian 20-footer with 16 seconds to play.  But the big difference was that this time his attempts in the key were either on target or drew fouls—or, at the very least, didn’t lead to turnovers.  Full credit goes to him and his mentor, coach Dunlap.  I have to admit that I was not feeling encouraged about this relationship, especially when just last week, Dunlap called Walker “an unusual player who can do some things very special.”  It honestly sounded like a parent awkwardly describing a child with severe autism.  But perhaps there has been real improvement.

After last season’s debacle the expectations that many fans will likely have for this year’s Bobcats is that they don’t do worse than they did last season now that there will be 16 more games on the schedule. Living through a 7-59 season was bad enough. Now that the option of doing worse is open with the full 82-game schedule this season it would be understandable if fans were just a little apprehensive.

However, with all the changes that the team has gone through since last season I would be shocked if the team were to look anything like the group that was on the court last season. I credit His Airness with going out and getting a new head coach, several new players, and even changing the uniforms so the team will not literally look like last season’s group.

Without blowing his considerable bank account out of the water and going after Dwight Howard or any other top name free agent (cause y’all know it would have taken a moderate sized fortune to get Superman or any other superstar to come to Charlotte) Michael Jordan has done his part to give fans a better product on the court this season.

It isn’t hard to be better than last season though. So what can we honestly expect to see from the Charlotte Bobcats this season? 10 wins? 20 wins? 30 wins? Dare I say it—playoffs???